Oxycodone purchases are dropping in Florida as state battles prescription drug epidemic

Sales of oxycodone — a pain medication that has plagued Florida as the No. 1 cause of prescription drug deaths last year — are down 17 percent for the first five months of 2011, Gov. Rick Scott reported during a news conference at the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office, underscoring the deadly nature of the public health crisis.

Doctors in Florida prescribe 10 times more oxycodone pills than every other state in the country combined. People come from all over the Southeast to visit the state’s pain clinics.